American artist displays his works in Baku [PHOTO]

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Baku Museum Center opened its doors to an exhibition by American artist Shane Guffogg.

Entitled “The OBSERVER is the OBSERVED”, the expo was co-organized by art agency Marika Parkdale and Carpentier Art Paris, with the support of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the U.S Embassy in Baku and Arts Council Azerbaijan.

Chairperson of the Azerbaijan Artists Union, People’s Artist Farhad Khalilov addressed the opening ceremony and stressed that the exhibition will attract the attention of art critics and a wide audience of art lovers.

Patrick Carpentier, who is one of the organizers of the exhibition, spoke about the creativity of the American artist and the works displayed.

Shane Guffogg, in turn, expressed gratitude to all who supported the organization and holding of the exhibition, which features 73 paintings and sculptures.

The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first represents the artist’s early period with works produced before 2008. Each work has up to 80 layers of translucent paint that gives the canvas an inner glow. In the second part are works that Guffogg dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci. The artist refers to his works as poetry without words.

The event will run until April 6, 2017. A number of educational and cultural events will be held as part the exhibition.

Shane Guffogg is an American artist in great demand. Admirers and collectors of his works include: former US president Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, Dustin Hoffman, Meg Ryan, Ed Harris, Seann William Scott and other well-known politicians, cinematographers and stars of show business. Shane Guffogg’s works are also to be found in the collections of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Duke University Museum of Modern Art, the Fresno Art Museum in California and many others. He was born in Los Angeles, where he received an art education at the California Institute of the Arts.

He uses a glazing technique that was very popular with artists of the 16th century. 

During this exploration he found that painting is one of the few art forms that may express what language cannot. The resulting work contains its own language of sign and symbol, and in its patterning, visual depth, and light, simultaneously seems to refer to emotion, to the human spirit, and to the unseen worlds of Quantum Physics and Super String Theory.